Actors and Performers 
Legendary voice instructor and creator of the Morrison Bone Prop, Annie Morrison, has put her modernising practice to paper, sharing her transformative process in The Moment of Speech: Creative Articulation for Actors.
In this exclusive interview, actress Joan Iyiola talks to Cherrelle Skeete, co-founder and Artistic Director of Blacktress UK, a network that supports Black womxn creatives by providing them with a community.
In this exclusive extract, Anne Bogart breaks down the art of ‘resonance’: defining what it is, highlighting why it matters, and explaining how the ‘global situation’ of 2020 spurred her into writing.
The Kali Theatre celebrates 30 years of producing art with 30 monologues and duologues written by South Asian women.
Dian Perry uses decades of experience to offer simple exercises for great narrators and voiceover artists.
Celebrating the boldest American voices today is this collection of seven plays from Clubbed Thumb’s Summerworks.
An anthology of plays from trans playwrights establishes a canon of contemporary American trans theatre.
A new series of practical guides to performing Shakespeare’s plays for actors, directors, teachers and students.
Five new plays that had their productions stopped due to the Coronavirus pandemic.
Read this Extract from Clown: The Physical Comedian, Introduction, The Word and The Look
Read this Extract from Voice Into Acting, Chapter One: The Organic Acting Approach and the Voice
Read this interview from the Actors’ and Performers’ Yearbook 2021 with David Mumeni on levelling the playing field for actors from working- and benefit- class backgrounds.
Read this extract from the introduction of Di and Viv and Rose by Elizabeth Kuti, from Methuen Drama’s Modern Classics series.
Read this monologue The Passport Thing by Iman Qureshi, taken from My White Best Friend, a collection of letters from some of the most exciting voices in the UK and beyond, edited by Rachel De-lahay.
Read extracts from Ann Yee’s conversation with Ayse Tashkiran, author of Movement Directors in Contemporary Theatre: Conversations on Craft
Read an extract from Rethinking the Actor’s Body: Dialogues with Neuroscience by Dick McCaw, published by Methuen Drama earlier this year.
We’ve put together a selection of recent hit plays that all include fantastic new monologues for actors. Many can be used by actors of any age or gender and others are more specific.
Read an extract from Screen Acting Skills by Roger Wooster and Paul Conway about how to work without other actors and develop skills for a screen career.
Read two extracts from Christine Riley’s new book Music Fundamentals for Musical Theory which helps aspiring musical theatre performers get to grips with music basics.
Methuen Drama attends Surviving Actors Conference 2020 featuring a special guest panel by Julie Hesmondhalgh, talking about life as an actor.
Read an extract from Bill Connington’s new book in Methuen Drama’s Acting Essential Series introducing actors to the Alexander Technique through practical study.
Actors’ and Performers’ Yearbook 2020 is now on sale, featuring updated essential contacts for stage, screen and radio along with fresh advice from industry experts.
Actor Rob Ostlere offers essential advice from his book The Actor’s Career Bible for any actors launching their career.
Read an extract from Martin Constantine’s new book The Opera Singer’s Acting Toolkit which offers opera singers an essential guide to creating a role on stage.
Read about the Methuen Drama plays and authors performing at the 2019 Edinburgh Festival Fringe including Baby Reindeer by Richard Gadd.
Read about the Methuen Drama plays and authors performing at the 2019 Edinburgh Festival Fringe including Baby Reindeer by Richard Gadd.
Celebrate 60 Years of Methuen Drama’s Modern Plays series with this special edition box set of titles as voted for by the public.
Actor Rob Ostlere offers helpful advice from his new book The Actor’s Career Bible
Read sample exercises from Samantha Marsden’s new book 100 Acting Exercises for 8-18 year olds to inspire classroom and drama club participation.
Read an extract from director Matthew White’s new book Staging Musicals in which he discusses the research process for the creative team.
Read an extract from actor and activist Julie Hesmondhalgh’s Working Diary which documents a year in her life.
Methuen Drama attend the Surviving Actors 2019 conference in London. Read about our day and seminar with Daniel Dresner.
As with most things in the acting world there is no ‘right way’ when it comes to putting a letter or email together. The following advice comes from interviews I’ve carried out with various actors, casting directors, agents and other industry experts; basic rules you can fall back on when in doubt, that will leave you something professional and effective.
For the last 2 weeks of June 2014, I was in Calgary working with Keith Johnstone (as his Literary Executor) preparing and packing his personal archive (or a portion of it) for shipment to Stanford University where The Keith Johnstone Papers will be permanently housed.
Film and stage are quite similar in that they both are looking for truthful behavior within imaginary circumstances, or to quote Stanislavski, “Actors must live privately in public” regardless of medium.
In October 2017, the The New York Times published an article accusing Hollywood film mogul Harvey Weinstein of decades of sexual harassment and assault. The entertainment industry’s apparent astonishment caused actress Alyssa Milano to tweet, “If all the women who have been sexually harassed or assaulted wrote ‘Me too’ as a status, we might give people a sense of the magnitude of the problem.”
This interview is an excerpt taken from Creating Musical Theatre: Conversations with Broadway Directors and Choreographers (2013), by Lyn Cramer.
CRAMER: I want to ask you about choreographic approach
With so many agents to choose from, it’s wise to spend time on researching which ones to target. Of course, you’ll get ideas from teachers and friends, but you should also spend time looking at websites – unless you’re prepared to spend a small fortune on postage and other costs.
Agencies come in all shapes and sizes. Larger, well-established West End concerns certainly have the attraction of the star names they represent, and if they offer you a place it could work for you. They will have the first look at film scripts, and the international cachet.
Actors without agents tend to lack credibility in the eyes of potential employers. It’s not fair, but it’s a fact. However hard you work at getting to know potential employers, most agents have their fingers closer to the pulse, know what’s coming up, and simply have far more contacts than you can ever have. That’s their job.